Chapter 11: Into the Snowdin Forest

Very quickly, the tall trees swapped out with snow-covered pines, as we continued down the path. To our left, a river flowed past us, towards the direction we were traveling.

As we walked along, off to the side, nestled by some trees, was a box and a standing sign by it. The sign read, "This is a box." Brilliant, I thought, starting off. "You can put an item inside or take an item out. The same box will appear later, so don't worry about coming back. Sincerely, a box lover."

"Okay..." I said, wondering how this was a good idea. Putting your items into a random box, and grabbing them later from a different, yet the "same" box? How did the box move, or move the items inside? What if some else used the box? Wouldn't they be able to take your items?

Sure the answer was probably "magic", using some sort of pocket space or something. But growing up around magic, I knew it was more complicated than that. Casting magic could be simple, but magic like "pocket spaces" was quite advanced, if you didn't have access to one naturally.

Wingding would compare it to a computing device, but since I'm not tech-savvy like him, I would compare it to something I know: Cooking. If you wanted to get a recipe right, you would need to get the right ingredients, split them into the right amount, mix them in the right order, and bake them in the right amount of time. One mistake, and you could ruin the whole thing.

Magic was very similar to that, but it relied more on your emotion and thoughts. Some magic was easy to learn, and all monsters had specific types of magic that were natural to them. But other magic was very difficult to master, and even could be dangerous if you screwed up using it.

I was going to just ignore the box. I had plenty of room in my pockets. I even knew how to use pockets spaces myself. How else would I store my Gaster Blasters? Frisk, however, opened up the box and reached inside.

"What are you looking for?" I asked her.

She grabbed whatever she was looking for, and pulled out a pair of tough-looking, but worn pinkish gloves.

"What are those for?"

Frisk looked at me nervously. She tried signing with one hand, holding the gloves in the other, saying, it... protects my hands.

"Like... armor?" Then it occurred to me. While protecting your hands could be important in a fight, but based on how she was asking, it was more likely she meant to keep her hands from hurting if she were to hit something, maybe even do more damage.

In short, they were another weapon.

"Frisk," I told her slowly, "I told you, we don't have to fight the monsters."

She looked down in shame.

I sighed. "Okay, you can put them on, but only because they'll probably keep your hands warm. No fighting with them," I repeated.

She nodded as she put on the gloves, squeezing her hands to warm them up.

Continuing on a short bit, just before the forest path diverged from the river, we found a fishing rod affixed to the ground, its line hanging in the water. Curious, I reeled in the line...

Only the thing attached to the end of the line was a photo of a weird-looking monster, some ugly fish dude. On the back, it said, "Call me! Here's my number!"

I decided not to call, and instead opted to send the line back into the water.

Delving back into the forest, we began to hear voices up. Lo and behold, it was Sans and Papyrus again. And of course, I was wondering how Sans got here so fast when he went the OTHER WAY!

As we approached, I could hear what they talking about. "SO, AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE..." Papyrus was saying.

"Oh, hey look, it's my good friend, Chara!" I jokingly said towards the taller skeleton.

Papyrus turned to us in annoyance, while Sans just chuckled. "IF I MUST, I SHALL CORRECT YOU. I... AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"

"I know," I told him. "What, can't take a joke? Geese, you must pretty 'bonely' then."

Sans's chuckle became a full laugh, while Papyrus groaned. "I SEE MY BROTHER HAS ALREADY CORRUPTED YOU."

"No, I was always like this," I replied. "I'm 'Sans' a corruptor."

Papyrus groaned again, before he squinted at see, his gaze passing by me. "WAIT, THERE ARE TWO OF YOU NOW..."

I looked behind me, finding the nervous Frisk hiding behind me again. I then looked back to Papyrus, saying, "yes..."

Papyrus scratched his chin, before saying, "WAIT A SECOND..." He then turned to Sans, while at the same time, Sans finally turned to us. Then Papyrus turned back to us, while Sans turned to his bother, and then going back and forth between these positions, faster and faster until they were both spinning in circles, when finally, they stopped, facing us, with Sans, of course, giving us finger guns.

Papyrus quickly pulled Sans in for a quick private talk, turning away from us, though we could still hear their loud whispers. "SANS! OH MY G**! ARE THOSE... HUMANS!?" Papyrus asked his brother.

They looked over their shoulders, and Sans pointed past us, saying, "uh... actually, i think those are rocks."

I looked over, and indeed, Sans was pointing to a pair of rocks on the ground.

"OH," Papyrus replied, disappointed.

"hey, what's that in front of the rocks?" Sans quickly noted.

"OH MY G**!" Papyrus turned to Sans, whispering (still loudly), "ARE THOSE... REALLY HUMANS?"

"yes," Sans whispered back.

"OH MY G**!" Papyrus responded, even louder this time (which I noticed was distressing Frisk). "SANS! I FINALLY DID IT! AND I GOT TWO FOR ONE! UNDYNE WILL... I'M GONNA... I'LL BE SO..."

"POPULAR! POPULAR! POPULAR!" he cheered. "...'AHEM'. HUMAN! YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU! I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL! THEN... THEN! I'M NOT SURE WHAT'S NEXT."

"Right..." I replied. It was tempting to just ask the over-ecstatic skeleton to just escort us to the capital, since I knew it would lead us to our own goal just the same. But I realized that it be the wrong way to get there, and potentially put us in a disadvantageous situation, so I decided against it. "That's great and all, but could you calm down a bit. Frisk doesn't like loud sounds, and you're freaking her out."

"OH... I SEE, UM, WAIT, WHICH ONE OF YOU IS THAT?" the taller skeleton asked.

I facepalmed. We must have taken that stupid name joke too far, I thought. "I'm Chara, the real Chara, and this girl behind me is Frisk," I told him.

"YES, GOOD TO MEET YOU, CHARA, FRISK. I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" he reintroduced himself. "AND THIS..." he motioned to his brother. "IS MY BROTHER... SANS."

"'sup," the shorter skeleton greeted.

"Uh, greetings..." I replied, finding it kind of ridiculous that we even had to be reintroduced the skeletons, when we clearly knew who they were already (but then again, we did go out of our way to confuse him before). Frisk nervously waved in response.

"IN ANY CASE!" Papyrus continued. "CONTINUE... ONLY IF YOU DARE!" Then he once again ran off, laughing in his, "NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"

"well, that went well," sans finally said.

"Yeah, your brother is something..." I told him.

"yup, ain't he cool?" I got an exasperated expression on my face. "don't sweat it, kid," Sans added, "i'll keep an eye socket out for ya."

"Right, except I'm not a kid," I replied, trying to keep my annoyance in check. "Frisk is, but I am a twenty-year-old adult."

"right, good to know. anyways, i'll see ya later." Then he turned followed after his brother, though for all I knew, he was going back to "The Box".

Maybe that's how it works, I thought.

I lightly tugged on Frisk's shoulder, signaling to her for us to move on. As we continued down the path, having to follow where the skeleton brothers had left to. Off to the side, there was a large cardboard box that seemed to be made into a station of sorts. Written on the front was, "YOU OBSERVE THE WELL-CRAFTED SENTRY STATION."

Right... I thought.

"YOU COULD HAVE BUILT THIS, YOU PONDER..."

I have a few ideas.

"I BET IT WAS THAT VERY FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN! (NOTE: NOT YET A VERY FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN.)"

And that is sad.

But as we continued, I thought about that a little more, and looked down at Frisk. I figured this would be a chance to voice my thoughts.

"You know, Papyrus seems pretty silly," I told Frisk.

She nodded, but her scared expression didn't change.

"I know he's loud and scary, and sure he wants to capture us... But I think he's kinder than you think. Perhaps he doesn't know any better."

I winced as I said that. It was just like what was going on with Frisk. I didn't want to remind her of that, so I added, "sorry..."

Sorry about what? Frisk signed.

"N-nothing," I said. "I just- I'd like to be friends with Papyrus. I think he'd be a great friend, don't you?"

...I don't know, Frisk signed slowly.

"Hey, there is no need to be afraid. Try to think of it like-"

"Did something move!?" a voice spoke up.

The two of us stopped in place. I looked over, and saw that we were passing by another wooden sentry station...

...And someone was sitting there.

He was a humanoid dog monster, with black and white fur, and pointed ears. He was wearing a pink tank top with a dog's face on it (for some reason), and yellow pants with black polka-dots and a brown belt. And he had a bone-shaped dog treat in his mouth.

"...Was it my imagination?" the monster continued. He climbed out of his station, and approached us, sniffing around. "I can only see moving things."

Good to know! I thought.

"If something WAS moving... For example, a human..."

Here we go.

"I'll make sure it NEVER moves again!"

He drew two short swords and readied himself for battle, looking in our... general direction.

He was looking back and forth, trying to locate our exact location. When he was looking away, I tried to nudge Frisk and sneak by him, but we just moved a tiny bit, and his eyes snapped onto us.

"Don't move an inch!" Doggo (as I decided to call him) said. We went completely still again, as he brought down one of his swords. However, it was apparently a magic sword, as the blades became light blue. I knew this magic. It couldn't hurt anything if it didn't move.

So, of course, it passed right through us.

That's... an unfortunate form of magic to use, I thought. Though, I figured it might have been the best he could've learned.

We remained still, as he said, "will it move this time?" as he swung his other sword. Same result.

Well, he can't seem to find anything, I noted. But if things kept going like this, none of us are going anywhere. So, I decided there was only one thing I could do.

Once Doggo looked away again, I took the chance, and lunged forward... to pat him on the head.

He snapped to me as I snapped away, and went completely still again. And he started freaking out. "WHAT! I'VE BEEN PET!"

He began turning his head back and forth, repeating words like "pet?", "pat?", and "pot?", which was amusing to watch. I smirked, and decided to pet him again.

"WHERE'S THAT COMING FROM!" He tried swinging one of his swords again, but he was too freaked out, and he missed completely.

I had to refrain from chuckling, but then I thought of Frisk. I nudged her a bit, and when she looked up to me, and I motioned for her to pet the dog.

She gingerly moved forward, slowly, as not to be seen by his motion sight, but eventually, she was able to rub his belly a bit.

"THERE'S NO END TO IT!"

Frisk smiled, and decided to keep going.

"WELL, THIS IS THOROUGH!"

But as Frisk kept going, Doggo calmed down (somewhat), saying, "o-o-okay, that's enough." He slunk back into his station, and looked out to us. "S-s-s-something pet me... something that isn't m-m-moving... I'm gonna need some treats for this!" Then disappeared behind his station's counter.

I motioned for Frisk and I to move on, and so we did. I noticed that there some more dog treats discarded near his station, which looked as if they were lit on fire and burned.

Does he smoke his dog treats? I thought. I pushed that thought aside though, and once we were out of listening range of Doggo (or at least I hoped. He was a dog, after all), I decided to get back to what I was telling Frisk before we got interrupted.

"Hey, Frisk, listen, about Papyrus," I started, "I think, based on what Sans told us, Papyrus just wants some friends, but he doesn't know what the right way to do that is. He wants to be recognized, so we should do that. Let's play along with whatever he has planned for us. I mean, we shouldn't get captured, but we should play along. Who knows, it might be fun!"

Are you sure, mommy? Frisk signed.

I was still annoyed that Frisk considered me her mother, but I kept that to myself this time. "Yeah. And if we prove to him that we don't need to be captured, we can definitely be his friends. Sans did say he was harmless, so don't be scared. Okay?"

Frisk nodded in response. I could see she was stilled scared, but hopefully, if I could get Frisk and Papyrus to become friends, then maybe that's what Frisk needed to become comfortable with monsters.

Author's Note: So, not much to say in this chapter. Chara and Frisk are simply entering Snowdin Forest proper, properly introducing themselves to Papyrus, and facing their first guard dog. I did make a definitive conclusion to the last chapter's naming joke (so it won't come up again. It doesn't need to), and Chara now has a plan to help Frisk with her fear of monsters.

There are a couple of things to mention. One, yes, I am changing the geographical layout of Snowdin (and likely the rest of the Underground) a bit. This is to try to make everything flow better, by not having them go off the running path as much, everything instead being found on that path. This is mostly to help my pacing.

Yeah, I know it's not great. The thing is, there are lots of great moments in this game, especially starting in Snowdin. But other people who rewrite the story for their fanfics or AUs (certain ones, at least), they skip over all this stuff. I didn't want to that, instead write how these change or are reacted to by the new characters, because it's interesting. But I'm finding that it's taking much longer to write, and get through an area, not to mention trying not to use repetitive writing during these moments.

Part of it could be that I actually record Undertale so I can use the footage as a reference for writing, and I'm a bad judge on what really needs to be in there. I'm trying to work on all this, and find the right balance with this, so bear with me. We'll just have to see how things work going forward.